Luke 14:25 begins:Now large
crowds were going along with Him - with Jesus.

When Jesus was teaching and ministering to the people
- there were crowds that followed Him around - “Jesus groupies”An entourage of
people - who“were
going along with Him” for whatever they could get for
themselves.

As Christians, there’s a danger that we face - a
temptation to serve in the church - to participate in
ministries - to come to Sunday services - for what
benefits us - what satisfies our wants - what’s
convenient.To be so
focused on God’s love for us - Jesus being born for us
- that we forget that all this is about God and what
He wills - not us.Focused
on ourselves - ultimately we may miss the
opportunities God gives us to be blessed and to
participate in the awesomeness of what He’s doing.

This being the last Sunday of 2004 - thinking about
what God may desire for us 2005 - as a congregation -
as individuals - today is good opportunity to ask:“If we’re
going to move forward in our lives - individually in
our relationship with God - and ministry - together as
a congregation - what does it mean to follow after
Jesus - to be led by Him?”

The answer to that question goes much deeper than just
following along with the crowd.The
answer lies in our willingness to be a disciple of
Jesus.

In Luke 9:22-24 Jesus says this:“The Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests
and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the
third day….If anyone wishes to come after Me - follow Me - he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow
Me.For whoever wishes to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”

There’s a difference between being a follower and a
disciple - following along with the crowd versus
giving up everything to become like the Master.Many follow.Few are disciples.Discipleship
goes deeper.Challenges
our commitment to Jesus more fully.

In Luke 14:25-35 there are three challenges for us -
our discipleship - three challenges that I’d like to
share to help us go deeper - to open ourselves up more
fully to what God has for us in 2005.

The first challenge comes is here in verse 26 - Luk2
14:26:Jesus - He turned
and said to them - this crowd of followers - “If
anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father
and mother and wife and children and brothers and
sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My
disciple.”

To be a disciple of Jesus means hating our families
and ourselves.That needs
explanation.

“To hate” is the Greek word “miseo” - which has the
idea of comparing two things and making a choice -
which one to love - which one to hate - or more
accurately - which one love and which one to love
less.

Imagine the family of that day.Generations
living together - respecting each other - working
together - side-by-side - at the things of life in a
well organized pattern or responsibilities and
expectations - managing the household - working the
family business.A
pattern that hadn’t changed for generations.Outside the safety of the
family was a hostile - dangerous - deadly world.To betray the family was
sacrilege - unheard of - dangerous - a disaster.To go against the family -
its will - its structure - to leave it - was a
tremendous wrong.

Jesus was going from town to town in the Galilean
countryside - teaching.In
one town His mother and brothers came to get Him.Why?We
don’t know.Bottom line -
for some reason they were concerned about Him and
wanted Him to come home with them.

The crowd was large.They
couldn’t get to Jesus.So
the word was passed through the crowd to Jesus, “Jesus,
Your mommy’s here.Your
brothers are outside.Stop
what you’re doing.Go
with your family.”

Jesus answers, “My mother and My brothers are
these who hear the word of God and do it.”(Luke 8:16-21)

That sounds harsh.Doesn’t
it?

Yet, this is the same Jesus - when He was hanging on
the cross - imagine the pain and what Jesus was
dealing with at the time - hanging there with all our
sins coming upon Him.On
the cross - Jesus so deeply cared for His mother -
that He took time out from dying and gave His mother
to John - told them to go with each other - so that
she’d have someone to care for her - to look after her
when He was gone.(John
19:25-27)

“To be my disciple you need to hate your family.”That’s not hate - as we think
of hate.That’s a choice.Doing the will of God comes
first.Preference - not
hate.

“To be My disciple You need to hate yourself.”Again preference - a choice
of priority - not hate.

Don’t we all struggle with this?Self will vs. God’s will?

Once - when Jesus was heading to Jerusalem He was
confronted by three men.The
first man tells Jesus, “I’ll follow You wherever
you go.”Jesus tells him that to
follow means never having a home.

Can you imagine that today in the United States -
where so many Christians are focused on upward moving
property values?“I’ll
follow you as long as it doesn’t too severely impact
my lifestyle.”

The next two men put conditions on following Jesus.“First, I
need to go bury my father.”“First,
I need to say goodbye to my family.”Jesus
said, “No one, after putting his hand
to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom
of God.” (Luke
9:57-62)

Ever try to plow looking backwards?Or drive only using the rear-view mirror?Following ourselves - what
we want for ourselves - isn’t discipleship.It’s a disaster.

Jesus shows us the example - in the extreme - in the
Garden of Gethsemane.In
prayer.Blood coming from
His pores like sweat.Knowing
what’s to come.The
choice - self-will vs. God’s will.Remember the words?Say
them with me.“Yet not
My will, but Yours be done.”(Luke 22:42)

God didn’t call us to emptiness and uselessness and a
life of following after worthless trivial pursuits.He called us to know Him
more deeply - to serve Him - to lose ourselves in Him
- to allow Him to mold us and move us and use us - to
do what is beyond what is in our wildest imaginations.To bring glory to the King
of Kings - God of all creation.All
that begins when choose to give God the control of our
lives.

Try this with me - if you mean it.“I choose God’s will - not mine.”

The second challenge for us begins in verse 27.Verse 27:“anyone who does not carry his
cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

To be a disciple of Jesus means carrying our cross.

The cross - for Jesus - stood for shame - humiliation
- degradation.He was
hung on a criminal’s cross.On
the cross Jesus was demeaned and debased.

The cross we carry isn’t just inconvenience or
hardship - something we have to “endure” because we’re
Christians - its not a difficulty or a trial.Instead
of being at church we could be with family or watching
football or on a trip someplace.We could use our tithe money and get that
plasma TV.

The cross is symbolic of what reduces us to humility -
offends our pride - shames us - exposing the sin in our lives - until
we’re totally surrendered to
God.

Paul describes this in Galatians 2:20.He writes, “I’ve been
crucified with Christ; its no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

Hear this:“Carrying our
cross” is the day-to-day living of the Christian life
as God allows us to live it for Him - a painful process of daily
living - before others - in deepening openness to God.

Jesus gives two illustrations of what He means by this.

Verse 28:For which
of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first
sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has
enough to complete it?Otherwise,
when he has laid a foundation and is not able to
finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
saying, “This man began to build and was not able to
finish.”

Many people look at these verses and think about what?Building projects and
budgets and giving estimates.A wise builder should
calculate the financial cost of his project before he
begins to build - to make sure he has the resources
necessary to complete the project.

But, the point here is not about “cost” - the
financial bottom line.The
point here is about commitment - carrying our cross.Jesus’ point can be
expressed in a question, “Are you
committed to finishing what you start - to see the
commitment you make through to the end?”

Too many Christians have started out following Jesus
and failed to finish as His disciples.They’ve fallen into moral failure - spiritual
apostasy - heresy.They’ve
brought ridicule upon themselves - and Jesus - His
church - and the Gospel.

Matthew was killed with a sword in
Persia.Mark died in
Alexandria - after being bound and dragged through the
streets.John was put in
a caldron of boiling oil - miraculously escaped death
and was exiled to Patmos.Peter
was crucified upside down in Rome.James - The Greater - was beheaded at
Jerusalem.James - The Less - was beaten and stoned
to death by a mob.Bartholomew
was flayed alive
- in Armenia.Andrew hung on a cross for
three days while he preached the Gospel to his
persecutors.Thomas was
run through with a spear.Jude
was shot to death with arrows.Matthais
was
first stoned - then beheaded.Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death at
Salonica.Paul - after
various tortures and persecutions - was finally
beheaded in Rome by the Emperor Nero.

Ray Stedman - in his sermon “The Way of the Cross”
shares this perspective...

“Imagine the scene when the Apostle Paul appeared
before Nero, the Roman emperor, to give answer to the
charges against him...imagine the emperor, in his
royal robes, seated upon a throne.His name was known throughout the empire.But few knew of Paul.Here was this obscure little
Jew, bald-headed, big-nosed, bandy-legged, totally
unimpressive in his physical appearance - he says so
himself in his letters.And
he was a leader of an obscure, heretical little sect
that was known only as troublemakers.Few had heard of Paul, while everybody had
heard of Nero.But the
interesting thing is that now, two thousand years
later, we name our sons Paul, and our dogs Nero.” (1)

What did God accomplish through these disciples?Want to make an impact in
this world - disciple of Jesus?Carry
your cross with commitment to finish line.

Try this with me - if you mean it.“I will carry my cross - with
commitment - to the finish line.”

Verse 31:Or what
King, when he sets out to meet another king in battle,
will not first sit down and consider whether he is
strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the
one coming against him with twenty thousand?Or else, while the other is
still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for
terms of peace.

A king is confronted with a battle - the enemy is marching
towards him.He’s
outnumbered.Defeat is
certain.The wise king seeks council - how to approach
the battle.He asks the
questions, “What am I up against?Can I win?”

When the Godly king sees that He can’t win He waves
the white flag and gives up - surrenders.So as Christians - when we
realize what we’re up against - Jesus is teaching us
that we should just give up.

Wait.That can’t be
right.

Against Goliath - the battle hardened Giant - scourge
of Israel - God sends the boy David and a slingshot.Against the Midianites and
Amalekites - their armies as numerous as locusts - God
pares down Gideon’s 32,000 men to a group of 300 guys
armed with water pitchers and torches.God takes a handful of relatively uneducated
fishermen - a tax collector - and a prostitute and
commissions them to share the Gospel with the world.Same God who calls us to
discipleship.

The point of battle is not the odds against us and the
opportunity to wave a white flag.Jesus’ point is our commitment to trust God and
engage the enemy.

Paul writes, “Our struggle is not against - what? - flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of - what? - darkness,
against the spiritual forces of - what? - wickedness
in the heavenly places.”(Ephesians 5:12)

The Bible describes ourenemy - Satan - as a roaring lion
- constantly seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)The Apostle John writes, “Do not
be surprised if the people of the world hate you.” (1 John 3:13)Jesus said, “If the world hates you,
you know that it has hated Me before you.” (John 15:18)To be a
disciple of Jesus
means being a target - for
Satan - who’s
going to use everything at his disposal in this world
against us.

Say this with me - if you mean it:“I will carry my cross - trusting
God - whatever the cost.”

Verse 33 is the summary of Jesus’ “carry your cross”
call to commitment:So then,
none of you can be My disciple who does not give up
all his own possessions.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - in his book, The Cost of
Discipleship - writes about “cheap grace” and “costly
grace.”“Cheap
grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves… the
preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,
baptism without church discipline, communion without
confession…grace without the cross, grace without
Jesus Christ, living and incarnate…Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought
again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the
door at which a man must knock.Such
grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it
is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.It is costly because it
costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives
a man the only true life.” (2)

Our greatest possession?Ourselves.Jesus says, think about what
you’re getting yourself into.Do
you really want to be My
disciple?To be my disciple costs you
everything so that all which
is left is the
visible working of Jesus in our lives.

Third challenge - verse 34:Therefore - if you really are my
disciples - Therefore, salt is good; but if
even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be
seasoned?It is useless
either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is
thrown out.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to be good salt.

Underline that statement:“Salt is
good”Good salt has value.Good salt is infectious - it adds flavor - it transforms
food - it produces something.True disciples of Jesus are valuable to this
world.

Share that with the person next to you.“You’re valuable salt.”

Jesus told His disciples during the
Sermon on the Mount, “You are the salt of the
earth.” (Matthew
5:13)What Jesus is
talking about is the basic command that’s given to every disciple of
His:Infect others with My Gospel -
reproduce yourself by bringing others to Me.It not an option.Its a command.The alternative is being cursed by God.

We know this.There’s either good salt or
bad salt.Bad salt is
thrown out - its worthless - its “cursed.”

Jesus spoke to the religious leaders of Israel.He warned them, “the
Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be
given to a people who will produce the proper fruits.”
(Matthew 21:43)The same principle is applied to individuals and
churches.

Way too many churches have become self-serving
Christian Clubs - followers of Jesus.Christians living faithful Christian lives - living in moral purity - attending church -
financially supporting the ministry - holding themselves back from
contact with the world - abstaining from the sinful -
never once infecting the world as salt.

Jesus told the disciples,“Follow Me, and I
will teach you to catch men.” (Mark 1:17)But
the church - rather than learning how to fish - the
role of a disciple - the church has become like fisherman who go out on a
lake in some
kind of huge yacht - oblivious to the condition of sea
- expecting the
fish to jump onto
the yacht - so the hired help can club them to death.

Is a mystery why so many churches have seen the
blessing of God removed from them?

“You are salt.”Be infectious.Disciple - be burdened as Jesus is burdened.Be burdened with the deep needs of those
around you.Learn from Me
to touch people’s lives with the Gospel.Be good salt.

Jesus concludes - the last sentence in verse 35:He who
has ears to hear, let him hear.It’s
almost a plea to those who are following.“Are you
listening?”

Jesus said, if you really want to follow Me - not just
follow along because it’s the right thing to do or because of what
you may get from Me - if you really want to follow Me - be My disciple.Make
the doing of God’s will the priority of your life - My
will becomes your will.Carry
your cross - to the end - whatever the cost - learn to
trust Me.Be burdened
with what I’m burdened with - reach others with My
Gospel.

In 2005 - may God lead us to where He desires to lead
us.May we be more than
followers.May we learn
to be disciples.

_________________________

1.Ray Stedman, from the sermon “The Way Of
The Cross”2.Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship,
page 47.